Colombian Salmonella Group
Principal Investigator:
Nora Cardona-Castro. MD. MSc.
Instituto Colombiano de Medicina Tropical - CES.
Cra. 43 A No. 52 Sur 99 Sabaneta, Antioquia, Colombia.
Fax: (574) 3014258, Tel: (574) 3053500 Ext 297
E-mail: ncardona@ces.edu.co
Web site of your institute: www.ces.edu.co
Research team:
Miryan Margot Sanchez Jimenez mimsanchez@hotmail.com
Fields of interest:
Diagnosis, pathogenesis, epidemiology.
In 1986 I receive my MD grade; I spent one year in a Colombian rural town doing my social year work. There are multiple health problems in a rural area of Colombia, the hospitals and health workers have good infrastructure and training for patient attention. However, the biggest problem to support a clinical diagnosis is the lack of diagnostic tests available for rural laboratories. This fact and the high prevalence in infectious and tropical diseases in rural areas, move me to decide change the clinical medicine for laboratory medicine. On returning to my city I decided that I wanted to carry out a medical specialization in clinical pathologist, after that I began to work at Instituto Colombiano de Medicina Tropical where my function is not only attend patients with tropical diseases, my principal function is to develop scientific research into tropical disease. During my first years of practice, I carried out some projects developing laboratory tests for salmonellosis diagnosis, as a dot blot test for IgM antibodies detection easy to use in rural laboratories. I liked to work in basic research but my background was not in this field, so I asked for a Fellow Research in Salmonella pathogenesis in Harvard Medical School, I had the opportunity to work with Dr. Catherine Lee pupil of Dr. Stanley Falkow. This experience gave me tools to think in molecular biology tests and study genes that Salmonella use to produce disease, all with the aim to improve the control and diagnostic methods here in Colombia. After 8 years of work, I decided to continue with my research formation studying an Infectious Disease MSc. at The London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. During this period, I confirm the possibilities to develop research in tropical diseases with the aim to solve health problems. From 1991 until today, I have worked at Instituto Colombiano de Medicina Tropical in Medellín Colombia, now associated with CES University. I am assistant professor and I have the opportunity to involve Medical and Veterinarian students to my research projects. My job is a challenge because the resources are scarce and the social conditions are not favourable for research.
Salmonella publications:
1.CARDONA CASTRO, NORA MARÍA, SÁNCHEZ JIMÉNEZ, MIRYAM MARGOT. Validation of a PCR for diagnosis of typhoid fever and salmonellosis by amplification of hilA gene in clinical samples from Colombian patients. Journal of Medical Microbiology. , v.53, p.875 - 878, 2004.
2. CARDONA-CASTRO NORA, SANCHEZ-JIMENEZ MIRYAM MARGOT. Evaluación de la capacidad de invasión de serovariedades de Salmonella enterica a células Hep-2. CES Medicina. 19(2):7-17, 2005.
3. CARDONA CASTRO, NORA MARÍA, PATHMANATHAN, S., MARÍA CARDONACASTRO, NORA, SÁNCHEZ JIMÉNEZ, MIRYAM MARGOT, CORREA OCHOA, MARGARITA, K. Thong
Simple and Rapid detection of Salmonella strains by direct PCR amplification of the hilA gene. Journal of Medical Microbiology. , v.52, p.773 - 776, 2003.
4. CARDONA CASTRO, NORA MARÍA, SÁNCHEZ JIMÉNEZ, MIRYAM MARGOT. Desarrollo y evaluación de una prueba de reacción en cadena de la polimerasa (PCR), utilizando la secuencia del gen hilA para diagnóstico de fiebre entérica por Salmonella spp. Biomédica. , v.24, p.194 - 199, 2004.
5. CARDONA CASTRO, NORA MARÍA, MARÍA CARDONACASTRO, NORA, Restrepo Pineda, Eliana Durley, CORREA OCHOA, MARGARITA. Detection of hilA gene sequences in serovars of salmonella enterica subespecies enterica. Memórias do Instituto Oswaldo Cruz. , v.97, n.8, p.1153 - 1156, 2002.
6. CARDONA CASTRO, NORA MARÍA, EDUARDO GOTUZZO, MÓNICA RODRÍGUEZ, HUMBERTO GUERRA. Clinical Application of a Dot Blot test for diagnosis of Enteric Fever due to Salmonella enterica serovar Typhi in Patients with Typhoid fever from Colombia and Perú. Clinical And Diagnostic Laboratory Immunology. , v.7, n.2, p.312 - 313, 2000.
7. CARDONA CASTRO, NORA MARÍA, PIEDAD AGUDELO. Immunoenzymatic dot-blot test for the diagnosis of enteric fever caused by Salmonella typhi in an endemic area. Clinical Microbiology and Infection. , v.4, n.2, p.64 - 69, 1998
8. GAVIRIA RUIZ, MARCELA, CARDONA CASTRO, NORA MARÍA Evaluation and Comparison of Different Blood Culture Techniques for Bacteriological Isolation of Salmonella typhi and Brucella abortus. Journal of Clinical Microbiology. , v.33, n.4, p.868 - 871, 1995.